Doodling ding dongs and some photographs

Life Drawing :
Not wanting to become complacent as I strive to find my own drawing style, I decided to sign up for a life drawing class. I have had no formal arty training since back in ye olde times of high school, many moons ago now. So I was rather nervous about it all, but nothing ventured, nothing gained etc



What did I learn?
Well firstly, that I am not good at life drawing, but I didn't expect to be. My main aim was to draw a recognisable human figure and not giggle at the naked person, which I was successful in achieving. Secondly,
it is surprising how quickly you get used to the model being naked. The only thing that surprised me, was that is was a naked dude, as for some reason, I thought it would be a woman. The model 'Arthur' was obviously a professional, as he disrobed with ease and had an air of being totally relaxed and comfortable, which rubbed off on everyone else. I didn't even have time to concentrate on the dangly bits, hence the reason why all the drawings are Ken Doll esque.

Measure, measure, measure and measure some more! 
Ever seen an artist, in real life, TV or movies, squinting and holding up their paintbrush in the general direction of their muse? Now I know what they are up to!
This is a good explanation of some of what I learnt 'Measuring like an artist' 

Tick Tock:
For measuring angles the tutor gave us a tip to tilt the pencil ( or paintbrush) and follow the angle, then visualise a clock face and think about what time the angle would be on. This makes it easier to then translate the angle onto your drawing. I have yet to put this into practice, so will see how that works out for me.

This introductory course was run by Dot-Art Check out their Website, Facebook, and Twitter (especially if you are based in the North West of England).

Summary:
Hopefully time and money will allow me to attend some more classes, as I can already see how this will improve my general doodling abilities (plus they had REALLY tasty sandwiches).
It did make me feel slightly sorry that I never went to a proper doodle school, but I can honestly say that I wouldn't doodle like I do now, if I had gone. From what the other people in the class said, you don't actual learn that much anyway (so there!).
What it has shown me, is the things I need to work on, to make the doodles, that I do, even better. Working out the right angles and proportions for an Octopus, riding a bicycle, into space, that kind of thing. With my style of doodles, sometimes a lot of work goes into drawing/sketching out realistic(ish) versions of animals/people etc and then turning them into cartoon form. I am looking forward to seeing how this new knowledge impacts the next lot of doodles.

Bonus: I got to meet up with Sophie Green and see her awesome artwork up close and personal. I could have bombarded her all day with questions, but she had some amazing work to do and I didn't want to be a pest! Check out her Website, Facebook and Twitter.


Gardening and stuff:
After the life drawing class I got the opportunity to meet up with someone that I have been following for the longest time on twitter @JenniferWelch . We have been trying to meet up for an age and finally managed it!

I got to go up to the secret rooftop garden living on the FACT building, what a beautiful place! I am hoping I get to sneak back there and take some photographs. The garden is called 'The Mediated Garden', more on this in a moment.
After a chat and poke around the garden, we popped downstairs for a glass of wine (well I did, it was free) and took in the rather fascinating exhibition 'Semiconductor: Worlds in the making' . It was definitely a day of indulging in cultural brain treats and meeting fascinating people.

I have seen a lot of similarities in gardening and doodling of late, for me they both hold a feeling of freedom, without having to travel anywhere at all. The Mediated Garden is not just a garden, it is a piece of artwork, asking the kind of questions about public space and what it feels like to see something beautiful that you are NOT allowed to play in.

Check out the website, facebook, twitter and flickr stream.

It was great to chat with Jenn, such a cool way to end an already arty farty day. Although not sure how I feel about the pigeon (or seagull) that decided to poop on me as I was saying goodbye, surely a sign of luck? right?

Jenn also gifted me with a Tomato plant,  Jalapeno Pepper, bean plants and a marrow (or squash), apparently my brain can't remember more than two things. These plants then accompanied on my train ride home, much to the amusement of the train conductor and my fellow train passengers.

Photographs:

After chatting with Jenn, I felt the need to spend some time in the garden, documenting some of the lovely plants and veg growing.

Also got round to editing some other photographs too, these are of my niece Arwen, from a visit a few months back.



So endeth my waffle for this post, if you have any tips about Life Drawing, drawing in general etc or gardening please dump them in the comment box! Thanks muchly xx

Dusting off the photo editing machine

Not played with lightroom, or any type of photo editing, since I finished my younger sisters wedding photographs back in October. People have persisted in annoying me by taking marvellous photographs and reminding me that I don't have a camera. Well that is not technically true, I do have my point and shoot, which was a great beast in its day. Unfortunately that day has run out and its heading towards being a knackered piece of crap! People really should respect the fact that I am jealous as hell and refrain from photographing anything, but people just don't have manners these days.

Now the other wretched sister has decided to get married! So I need to brush up on my haphazard photography skills. I shall only be a shadow photographer this time, lurking in the dark shadows ready to snap unsuspecting wedding guests... Mwhahahaha! Oops don't know what happened then.

Anyhoo here are a few photographs I never got around to editing when I was up in Scotland. Which I have now edited. Does that even make sense?

The rest are HERE

Edited note: Especially for Linda.. I was lazy and forgot (couldn't be arsed remembering) what the ruddy lighthouse was called. After a quick google ponder, I suddenly recalled that it was Chanonry Point Lighthouse. No need to go on those dolphin watching boat tours, you can simply bring your bins and sit on the beach to see some excellent dolphin action.

Photography link of win: For those that like adding layer upon on layer to distress, alter, add wizardry to your images, then you may just like this site: My 2econd Skin


Doodles:
Don't be sad about the lack of doodles in this post, I shall be posting a MAHOOSIVE amount in a few days or so!

Also have you ruddy well 'liked' Self Exam Doodles over on facebook yet?

Adding layers to life

Heather and Jessica edited with lightroom and enhanced with layers

Still on my quest to edit all my sisters wedding photographs, hopefully soon I shall be finished. Luckily she loves me and knows I can still lock her in a cupboard if she annoys me about it. To be fair, she hasn't moaned once about it and has loved the ones I have shown her so far. I just want them to be edited to the best of my abilities and for her to have some lovely photographic memories.
It is a steep steep learning curve, not only taking the photographs, but also the editing. I keep adding new things to my box of tricks, which of course adds on more work, but it is still fun! There is so much to learn and once you make the dreaded mistake of looking at other people photographs, you are doomed.

Heather on the way to the church, edited in lightroom and enhanced with layers

At the moment I am using Lightroom 3 to edit the photographs and then using Picnik.com to add some finsishing touches.
Lightroom Trick - Look into the world of presets! Magical stuff that creates all sorts of cool effects that you can then further tweak.
Picnik.com Trick - If you are premium user you can add 'Layers/textures'. You can also do this using other programs, but I can only do it using Picnik for now!

Wedding Car edited using Lightroom and enhanced with presets

Next time I update the blog about the wedding photography, hopefully I will have bloody finished, but probably not. Let me know what you think and if you have any favourite photograph editing tricks or tips be sure to let me know them.

Tis all the bloody hamsters fault or something

This is herbert and sherbert, they are the hamsters that control my PC and they are feckin useless. I have tried putting hamster pellets in the air vents of my PC, but still it runs like shit. So it must mean the hamsters need replacing or something? Hamster butties anyone?

Doodle news: 

I totally forgot to pimp out this post about yours truly, so if you want a slightly better insight into the inner working of my doodle brain, then please read this 'Artist Profile: Claire Pitt'. Being the modest mary that I am, I am not all together comfortable, if at all, with the title 'artist', but I am a million percent flattered by it.

I should be going on a Intro to Art Therapy day sometime in the near future (if I can find that ruddy piece of paper), so no doubt that will be fuelling more doodle like thoughts and ideas.

Wedding Photography update:

By Christ! Editing wedding photographs is a long job! I am about half way through and I am rather chuffed with some and not so chuffed with others. There are so many things one would do differently, but that is for another post. Hope you like this one? Tis one of my favourites so far.

Music of the moment:

Not sure I have any business writing about music, but I shall plod on nonetheless. For a while now, I have been on folk vibe, listening to music that plucks at your soul ,as well as the odd ukulele.  I have never wanted a triangle and tambourine, as much as I do right now, but luckily for the rest of the world I haven't gotten any (yet).
In the last post I mentioned Evening Chorus, who still need your Vote by the way. In this post I shall mention the next band that has been played rather a bloody lot in my playlist of late..  
                                                 Black Atlantic



They can be found here, here and here

Music news sort of...

Twitter led me to Slowcoustic which led me to Yer Bird Records, which then led them back to me. This is because Yer Bird Records is now run by Slowcoustic and his wife. Anyhoo it is the mother load of Fanfolkingtastic music (including Black Atlantic) and I was over the moon that they wanted to use a few of my photographs for the latest album 'Folk Music For What Lies Ahead' . At last I shall have a teeny tiny claim to fame and glory at last! Ooops it appears to have gone to my head already.

I should have the album in my grasp soon! (Shouldn't I Folk Gods?) and then I can gush more about the fanfolkingtasticness of it all.

Toodle Pip!

The Wedding, the death of Frank and the loss of the DSLR

 This was a doodle I did for Heather and John's save the date cards

Warning this is just a splish splosh of grey matter, garbled together in post like form:

I got back the Highlands of Scotland last Saturday and have been editing the wedding photographs ever since. I took over a thousand myself, then my older sister Jemma acted as second camera, so I have about a 1000 from her camera too!

Here is a one that Heather has seen already:

When I have eventually finished editing them all, I will blogging about what it is like to photograph a wedding as a rank amateur, sweaty palms, feeling sick and all that fun stuff. Also how I felt about having to give back the DSLR camera (boohoo)

On coming home I found Frank, my deformed fish, dead in his plant pot. I know what are you thinking, of course he would be dead if he was in a plant pot! But Frank was very happy in his ceramic plant pot, he was the last fish to survive the deadly fish tank of doom (long story, too tragic).

Really missing blogging of late, the words trapped in my grey matter are really better out than in, well for me anyways. There is WAY too much crap floating around in this noggin of my mine at the moment.


Other stuff:
Being without proper music for nearly two weeks was bloody awful. I think spotify has been on non stop since I got home. It is bands like Evening Chorus, that become a soundtrack to your life, in particular this track in the video below is very relevant to me at the moment. I discovered them via twitter and I am chuffed to have found them before they get uber famous, which they will.

They are in a competition at the mo, so please vote for Evening Chorus HERE if you get the chance, they are a bloody fantastic band.

Evening Chorus:

Medieval Malarkey in Edinburgh

Greetings foul and rotting carbuncles of flea ridden fleshpots!

Tis I the Grail Master! Ruler of all things Grail and Quest like.....

Oops sorry, erm still in medieval taskmaster mode from ye olde times (the other weekend). Yonder weekend was my younger sister's hen weekend, a weekend of dressing up like chickens or a weekend of frivolity and mischief, before one gets married. As the sister (Heather) would have ideally liked a medieval wedding, but the husband to be said no (no fucking way), so a medieval hen weekend was the joyful compromise.That meant costumes and some stuff to do that was, kind of, sort of, Medieval (ish).

Where does one look to when one needs some comedic medievalish inspiration? Only one place of course! The mighty python - Monty Python , well Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Special Edition) to be exact.



After watching that and few other clips a million or so times, I had a plan! Twas time to send the sister on a quest for her own Holy Grail.......

I formulated some questions, then I came up with some rather special names for all the medieval ladies that were playing along, Heather was this delightful character...

Dearest Heather....
Thou artless Foul wretch
Forgive this crazy pig of Widnes. A gossiper of rioters and a feeler of wretchs.
Heather you are henceforth
Princess Isadora Frigginoff, Ruler of Farnworth and the small city of Fannyshockingham

My personal favourite was Lady Amanita Ceeurpeenis formerly Dampnow from Littlepiddle. As someone pointed out, yes I may have too much time on my hands in the wee hours of the morn..

This is a google map I created, of all the places we either visited, were part of the quest and/or wanted to visit. Alas couldn't fit all in. Also included some pubs and foodie places that sounded rather good, so will have to go back and sample them.

View Heather Holy Grail Quest in a larger map

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Still sleeping

Well by still sleeping I mean this blog, I would love to still be sleeping, but alas I am busy busy busy.

My sister Jemma is taking Amazing pictures of my new baby niece! Here is one of my favourites of Arwen with her older brother Ewan. Only a few weeks till I get to see her for the first time and spend time my two awesometriffic nephews.

My Awesome friend Karen got married on Saturday, so last Wednesday I travelled down south and spent the whole weekend involved in wedding fun, Saturday was a beautiful day and I took over 500 photographs, which I need to edit!
I owed Karen a very belated birthday present and the rule was that it had to be handmade, so I decided to do a doodle. I have been working on it for ages, practising drawing her, her partner and their animals, whenever I had a moment to spare. It was much harder than I thought it would, because I wanted it to be special.
Version one was okay, but just not very Karen or special enough, so I consulted my doodle mentor Miss TJ and got her opinion on what I needed to change. Her advice was invaluable and although I was fed up with making stupid mistakes with version one, I am so happy that I did it again!

Version One:

Version two:

I am still taking photos every day, just don't have the time to bloody upload the things!! It is my sisters medieval hen weekend, this weekend! So Edinburgh watch out! Hopefully I will have time before her wedding on May to catch up on the photographs and write about all the daft things I have planned for her this weekend.

/puts blog back in bed and turns back to twitter

Get bloody on with it

This is blog is in semi hibernation mode as I get bloody on with stuff, mainly college assignments (Oh deja-vu moment.....)

Other news:
I have a beautiful new niece Arwen Elizabeth, she is two weeks old today.

Not seen the little munchkin yet, as she lives in Hamburg, Germany, with my sister and rest of their family. My younger nephew Connor was not happy that I stayed home to do bloody college work, whilst my parents went over to see the new baby. So the little bugger decided to stab me in the heart with this note, that he gave to the mumborg to pass onto me.

Dear Claire
Why did you stay at home?
Love you lots
xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Connor

Wow that kid takes after me, emotional blackmail or what? I will have to kick his wee arse when I see him in May. Well by kick his arse, I probably mean photograph him to death and get him to chant 'Claire is awesome'.

Still doing photo a day thing, if you want to check out those HERE

I am still floating around in the blog aether, don't forget about me xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

PS: Listen to this, I love it:

Yeasayer "ONE" By: Radical Friend from ODDBLOOD on Vimeo.

Bang bang she is brain dead

Used previously in this post 'I am stuck'

For those that regularly read (hey guys), I had previously written about writing a post which dealt with my concerns/fears/thoughts about becoming a therapist. It was just a short paragraph at the end of this post 'Regardless of the mood, the sun still sets' which in turn had come about from this post 'The empty box and brick wall'.If you read those posts and the comments that go with them, which are invaluable to me, you will probably get a better idea of where my head is, at the moment.

The post title is from a combination of things, over thinking things to death and the incessant 'bang bang' of building work all sodding week! That was not helped matters at all.

Sometimes I feel like I am saying the same thing over and over again, the mental goo had its evil grasp upon me back when I first doodled the mental goo doodle and even though at times it felt like I was free from it, I think I was kidding myself.

If you can't stomach my self indulgent whingeing and waffle please gaze upon the pictures, but even they are mainly gloomy.

From my Pennington Flash set

From my Churchyard set

So as the sunsets on this week and a new one starts, I wonder what is in-store for me this week?

From my Door with a view set

Tech News Alert

For those of you that read this blog and use blogger/blogspot yourself, you may be interested to know that you can now use 'pages' on blogger. I have converted my 'about me' into a page, as it was previously just a backdated post. To use this feature you must be logged into 'blogger in draft', which I have set as my default dashboard anyway. Let me know what you think of this and if you come up with any cool uses for it. For me personally it is just another reason not to move to wordpress.

Pictures and Pondering

My next written post will be most probably of epic proportions, due to the nature of its contents. So in the meantime please gaze upon my latest photographic offerings. I have picked the best from each new Flickr set and then provided the link to the rest of the sets for your enjoyment.

From the Parkgate set

From the New Brighton set

From Local Churchyard set

From Door with a view set

Please remember if you are desperately missing more regular blogging from me, I am blogging daily on my photo a day blog, which is linked in the sidebar! I am currently on Day 91! Time certainly does fly.
So that should explain why I am taking so many ruddy photographs at the moment, if you didn't know that already. The main motivation for the photo a day project is preparation for the wedding of the year in May. Not my wedding, but the big little sisters, who is letting me take the photographs.. poor girl!

Regardless of the mood, the sun still sets.

After writing last weeks waffle on the evils of those walls made of bricks, I realised I was in dire need of fresh air and good company. So on the Saturday I played out with friends and was even refused entrance to a nightclub because apparently all three of us looked younger than 25. Whilst I admit to looking youthful, the bouncer knew very well that we were old enough to drink in that establishment. Ah well, no harm, no foul, we just toddled over to the nearest pub and gazed upon the strange folk that inhabit my town. Out of the three of us out that night, it is only I that still live in town in which we all grew up. They, out of some morbid curiosity, ever now and then, want to play out in our old stomping grounds, but once there, realise why they are the stomping grounds of old. A good time was still had, but hopefully they have learnt their lesson this time and we pick somewhere decent next time.

The next morning, even though a few sherbets where had by all, I had no hangover! This may be down to consuming a rather large bacon butttie when I got in? We all know that bacon is the food of Gods and drunk people. So I had another one when I woke up too, heh.  The weather was unusually sunny and nice, so I decided to head out with the dad for a spot of birdwatching. This also meant I could take the camera out for a proper play outside, instead of just in the garden. It was more than delightful to out and about, stretching the legs and getting some fresh air! Firstly we went to a small nature reserve called Marton Mere and then headed to Southport. At Southport, I got there just in time to see this beautiful sunset! It was absolutely lovely.

Even as the light began to fade, the scenery still looked so beautiful and peaceful.


Things:
I have noticed, when I feel bad about being behind in college work, I don't doodle.

The post I was going to write, was a post on my thoughts/fears on becoming a therapist, but I couldn't find the words I wanted to use. Then I wondered if it would be something that anyone would like to read? Do you wonder what motivates someone to become a therapist? Do you wonder what scares the shit out of them?

The empty box and brick wall

Some days it feels like my head will explode with ideas for doodles, future client work, college assignments and blog posts. Other days it feels like there is nothing there but inconsequential Styrofoam bits of nothingness. I rummage round for signs of life, but just find dust. I have been looking at all my college notes and trying to get the rest of my work finished. I look back at the work and realised that I loved every minute of it, especially when writing up my own philosophy towards therapy and counselling.

Which can be found here (if you want to have a look).

So if I enjoyed every minute of college, what the hell am I waiting for!
Get bloody on with it!

Last year was pretty awful, nearly all of it was spent under exceptionally stressful circumstances, which culminated in the mumborg having her leg amputated. The mumborg is my mum, you can read about the operation here and all posts mum related are here. The operation went well, as well as these things can go and she is finally home.

Other times I feel like I am either running into or building too many of these.

During stressful times, walls are built and forcefields are set to maximum, just to get through the day.There was many a time last year, when I thought mum was going to die, although she assured me that would not be the case and to get on with my bloody work. So I would switch from being deathly worried to pissed off that she was still in hospital. Then I hopped back on the guilty train when they finally made the decision that the leg would have to go and this was a 'serious' operation. As I mentioned above, the operation went well, mum is doing great now. So finally I could relax, after months of worry, then I promptly got swine flu and have been ill ever since! So as the stress walls crumbled, so apparently did my immune system. So as one wall crumbles, I run head first into another.

The photographs are all part of my 365 photo a day project, they turned out pretty serendipitous don't you think? I didn't know what I was going to write, till I actually started writing. This page has been blank for most of the day, kind of like me.

It is hard work, this personal development lark. You open up yourself and see your own little world through shiny new eyes. It is inspiring, thoughtful and a whole feast of wonderful things, but the sun glares down on your new eyes at times and it all feels a bit raw. I suppose this could explain my new appreciation of music, I should emphasise that I mean 'good' music and with that, I am afraid blubbering occurs! Something about being in a certain melancholic mood and haunting vocals that now equate to me blubbering. To be honest, it is not sad crying, just going with the flow. All that tampering with ones empathy levels, has a strange effect, don't even mention sad puppy adverts or TV charity appeals or the ruddy news.

Never fear, I am never melancholic for long, not when you can put a donk on it.....

Please forgive me for this, but watch this youtube clip 'Put a donk on it'

(You need to watch that, well maybe not 'need').

/seconds later....

Did you watch the 'Donk' video? If so, I am sure you will never take me seriously again, which may have been an evil ploy, so that you don't think I have gone all soppy and melancholic. The Donkness also gives you a wee glimpse into the music of my 'youth' and how ones tastes change over the years.

From Donk to the Down-Tempo and everything in between.

My three thumbs UP of the week go to the music blog Slowcoustic, I first discovered this blog when my musical chum @Tartytart wrote a guest post over there, which inspired my snogging post. Since then I have been catching every musical tidbit that slowcoustic throws our way, it is treat to your ear lobes!

So now that I have waffled on, I am off to do battle with my Boggart.

Freezing Blue Tits!

 Click image to see Blue Tit large

It so cold over here in the UK, that our tits are in danger, well by 'our' tits, I actually mean the various tits that you find in your garden. No no, not a loved one building an inappropriate snowman, tits of the feathered kind.

Following advice taken from the RSPB website

The RSPB is asking people to follow a wild bird winter survival plan that will help wildlife during the harshest weather.

1. Put out feed regularly, especially in severe weather. Set up a bird table and use high calorie seed mixes. This can also be used to put out kitchen scraps such as animal fats, grated cheese and porridge oats
2. Put out hanging feeders for black sunflower seeds, sunflower hearts, sunflower-rich mixes or unsalted peanuts
3. Ensure a supply of fresh water every day. If it is very cold use tepid water but DO NOT use any antifreeze products
4. Put out fruit, such as apples and pears, for blackbirds, song thrushes and other members of the thrush family
5. Food bars or fat hung up or rubbed into the bark of trees is a great help for treecreepers, goldcrests and many other species
6. Put up nest boxes to provide roost sites for the smaller birds. They will then be used for breeding later in the year

 For the rest of the RSPB article, with more valuable info, please click here - Feed the birds

All this effin cold weather has allowed me to play with my new foster camera out in the snowy weather. What is a foster camera I hear you ask? Well as I am taking the photographs for my sisters wedding, she has allowed me to play with her camera till after the wedding. So till June, I have her Canon EOS 1000D to play with, woohoo. You can see my photographic progress over on my daily photography blog or on my flickr.

December depicted in doodles and snaps

Well December whizzed by faster than a duck in roller boots being chased down hill by a rabid fox. In fact the whole of 2009 went pretty much that way. Not sure if I will do a review of 2009 yet, maybe and maybe not, at the moment I am not feeling it.

Anyhoo luckily I am doing this photo a day thingy, which not only provides me with an alibi for most days, it also reminds me what the feck I have been doing this past December. As I am not posting all the photographs I am taking daily on this blog, I would like too share them still on here, as I did with the November post.

So December in photographs..

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Happy Holidays and all that bollocks

Tis a few days after Christmas now and I hope those that celebrate this time of year did indeed have a nice time? Or at least managed to get through it without killing anyone....

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Chasing Rainbows and stuff

Be thou the rainbow in the storms of life. The evening beam that smiles the clouds away, and tints tomorrow with prophetic ray.
Lord Byron

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A doodle is for life... etc...

I recently took part in a tagline competition for the Dogstar Foundation 

The Dogstar Foundation was founded in 2006 to provide free veterinary care to dogs and cats in the Kegalle area of Sri Lanka and has expanded to other areas via a series of mobile clinics and outreach projects offering  free neutering and vaccinations The animals that 'check in' to our clinics are not just pets, but also the local 'community' dogs (in the UK, we would call them strays).  Un-neutered and unvaccinated companion animals (pets) and community animals interact daily and this creates an ideal environment for the spread of diseases and unwanted pregnancies. Ever-increasing population of dogs and cats overwhelm the resources of the local communities causing suffering and distress.

I came up with: Making tails wag since 2006 

Which only bloody won, woot! (woof).

They can be found on Twitter and Facebook, so if you want to get more tails wagging them give them a follow.

Over on Frapto, I am still going strong ...

I doth my cap/ tip my hat/curtsey in the direction of Mr @skrift for coming up with this blog post title, he is a writer like person who loves ABBA (albums only, not that Mama Mia shite), a jolly nice chap who is on twitter as @skrift and blogs here Skrift. He also wees more when it is cold and through the power of google, I found out he was not alone in that phenomena. Who said twitter wasn't good for owt?

November in pictures

On November 1st I started a 365 photographic project, basically a photo every day for 365 days.So here are the fruits of my first 30 days... I definitely picked random subject matters.

November in pictures

Each photograph is individually found in my Frapto Archive, with an explanation about each subject found here-  Frapto Archive . Frapto is basically a photo blog, that I share with a group of others taking the 365 challenge.
The challenge for me, is not only to take a photo a day, but also to improve over time. This is especially important for my sisters wedding in May, as I have mentioned briefly that I am the photographer. So for the time being, if you want a daily fix of me, check out my photos on the frapto site. 

This is what my desk looks like when I am doodling

Nature surprises

Winter Nips, Olbas and Memories

At this time of year, I reach for the Olbas more frequently. It use to be a seasonal thing, but my addiction has deepened, or my sinuses have become more stuffed over the decades, so now it's an all year round habit. The Olbas addiction started in early childhood, when the Grandma Lil use to shove an olbas inhaler up my nostrils before heading out to school on a cold morning. It was only in later years, did I realise that the olbas inhaler was passed between the sisters and I, never wiped in-between (gross). That olbas inhaler had to be ancient, I never saw a new one, ever.When the ye olde ancient olbas inhaler wasn't about, a few drops of pure olbas oil was put on a hanky and stuffed in my pocket. They say that your olfactory (sniff sniff) senses link up directly to your memory, so sniffing a wee bit of olbas whooshes me back to days of duffel coats and hugs off Grandma Lil.

Another childhood memory that goes in hand in hand with the olbas, is a handful of Winter Nips, before you get excited, the nips I am talking about, are the sweets you see in the picture above..Not the scenario doodled below....

I loved  those sweets, they are small black herbal flavour boiled sweets, which don't actually sound that nice, but I assure they are! They warm up your mouth and as a kid, I was convinced that they magically warmed up your whole body. So when I saw a bag of them in the supermarket, I had to buy some! Nom nom nom nom!

So do you have favourite childhood sweet? What childhood smell tickles your olfactory senses?